Maddie Fox-Wahab

My name is Maddie Fox-Wahab and I'm a local photographer.

I was born and raised here in Mankato, MN with my parents, and my two cats, Lily and Booboo. Ever since I was a kid I loved art, writing, and movies/tv. Any story idea I ever had (usually based off of a Pokemon movie or Zoey 101) I would get to work writing in a small handcrafted book I would make out of notebook paper. Sometimes I would print out images to make a cover for my book, otherwise I would just draw one. Granted I would only get about ten pages in before inevitably giving up and starting a new book, I always had the ideas in the back of my mind and grew to expand them. As I got older I thought that what I was destined to do was write, but as time went on I realized more of what I enjoyed from my book making was the designing the front and back covers. Of course I didn't realize this until I was two years into an English Studies degree at MSU, and figured out I probably wouldn't make a living off of writing when our world is becoming increasingly digital.

That's when I switched to South Central College for the Multimedia major. Multimedia is a culmination of photography, videography, and graphic design, and it was here that I found my true passion in photography. My mom was always dreaming of becoming a photographer when I was a kid, and I always envied (and thought I could do better) than her big fancy camera and lenses. So I bought a small, pretty basic Nikon DSLR and got to work.

Fast forward almost a year and I have a grown a small business specializing in fine art portraiture. It often gets brought up in photoshoots that the model is very surprised that I am female. Most of the girls I work with have done a lot of photoshoots, but all with an older, male photographer. And though I have no opposition to shooting guys, I am always much more highly drawn to working with females. I've been thinking on that idea a lot lately and I think I realized that the reason I enjoy shooting girls so much more, is that they have such an appreciation for the work that I return to them. Most of the girls I work with aren't deemed as "Traditionally beautiful", but I find them to be truly breathtaking. That is what I hope to give every girl who I work with, a pure, accurate image of how beautiful they really are. There's nothing that makes me happier than hearing a client say that they love how beautiful my work is; but the secret is it's because their beauty is in.

On the other side of the coin is my passion for video production. Like I said, I've always loved movies and tv shows, and I think there is something so incredible about creating them. Though video isn't my main focus at the moment, I still have a strong desire to strengthen my video abilities.Through my time in school I've competed in multiple video competitions including Red Eye Film Festival and SkillsUSA. Both of which myself and my team took home gold medals. In Skills USA we even won the national competition in Louisville, Kentucky.